Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 5 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 5 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
By the men, the languti and leg cloth of the Tamils are worn. A turban
is also worn, and a cumbly or blanket is invariably carried, and put
on when it rains. [It is noted, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901,
that males dress themselves like the Maravans of the low country. A
huge turban is almost an invariable portion of the toilette. The chief
of the Mudavars is known as Vakka, without whose consent the head-dress
is not to be worn.] I have seen a Muduvar with an umbrella. Nowadays,
the discarded coats of planters, and even trousers and tattered
riding-breeches are common, and a Muduvar has been seen wearing a
blazer. The men wear ear-rings, supposed to be, and sometimes in
reality, of gold, with bits of glass of different colours in them,
and also silver or brass finger and toe rings, and sometimes a bangle
on each arm or on one leg. The women go in very largely for beads,
strings of them adorning their necks, white and blue being favourite
colours. Rings for the ears, fingers and toes, and sometimes many glass
bangles on the arms, and an anklet on each leg, are the usual things,
the pattern of the metal jewelry being often the same as seen on the
women of the plains. The cloth, after being brought round the waist,
and tucked in there, is carried over the body, and two corners are
knotted on the right shoulder. Unmarried girls wear less jewelry than
the married women, and widows wear no jewelry till they are remarried,
when they can in no way be distinguished from their sisters. Tattooing
is not practiced. Sometimes a stout thread is worn on the arm, with
a metal cylinder containing some charm against illness or the evil
eye, but only the wise men or elders of the caste lay much store on,
or have knowledge of these things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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